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Hybrid View

2006 HCHII - Keep it forever?

Hi -- I bought one of the first Japanese made 2006 HCHII's to come off the ship in California. When I got it, and learned how to drive a hybrid, I was getting 48-51mpg pretty consistently. And, on southern california freeways, to boot.

I have had zero IMA problems, codes, lights, etc. As many people did, I took it in for maintenance and they applied the sofware/firmware change that lowered my gas mileage in exchange for purportedly longer battery life.

Fast forward to 7 years later, and I'm in Huntsville, Alabama (job transfer), and getting 40.something mpg on a good tank with no air conditioning on at cruising speeds of 60mph.

I attribute this to a) the software update, and b) the age of the car, and c) the ethanol mix in the gasoline (10% minimum).

The car has 92,000 miles on it, and still drives very, very well. I'm 57 years old, and considering retirement when I'm 62. Until now, I'd been planning to seel the car in 2016 and buy a 2011 model HCH.

However, I'm now reconsidering that move and, instead, think I may simply continue to keep and maintain the car, even replacing the battery in a few years if my mileage gets much lower.

Is there a downside to doing this aside from gradually increasing maintenance costs? I mean, it IS a Civic and made in Japan -- shouldn't I get 200k miles or better on it?

Well, skip forward 2 years -- just took the car in to Honda with 106k miles. Mileage is running in low 40's still when I'm really careful. Battery light has been coming on once in a while right after starting it, and then would go out after a while. Rotated the rear tires to the front as per normal, but started getting road noise. Read about the control arms and am going to have the service dept replace those. May or may not get any recompense from Honda -- don't care. 2 days ago, the IMA and Engine light came on, went off, then, back on again. Honda says a new battery will run > $2.5k installed, but they want to try a software update first. I thought I'd had that update, but they said I didn't. Seems wierd.

I still want to keep the (paid for) car into retirement, but, I'm not as sure about that as I was. I'm a little surprised nobody responded to this post in 2 years -- anyone still reading this?

Well, skip forward 2 years -- just took the car in to Honda with 106k miles. Mileage is running in low 40\\'s still when I\\'m really careful. Battery light has been coming on once in a while right after starting it, and then would go out after a while. Rotated the rear tires to the front as per normal, but started getting road noise. Read about the control arms and am going to have the service dept replace those. May or may not get any recompense from Honda -- don\\'t care. 2 days ago, the IMA and Engine light came on, went off, then, back on again. Honda says a new battery will run > $2.5k installed, but they want to try a software update first. I thought I\\'d had that update, but they said I didn\\'t. Seems wierd.

I still want to keep the (paid for) car into retirement, but, I\\'m not as sure about that as I was. I\\'m a little surprised nobody responded to this post in 2 years -- anyone still reading this?

Hi there,
I am from Hungary and I have bought HCH II 2007 car a mounth ago. The mileage was 169000, it was a company car before. It runs well!

I have two '06 HCH2. One with 133K mi and another with 210K mi. Plugs ($120), coils ($55 each x 8), motor mounts ($500/set), IMA batteries ($?,???), O2 sensors ($200), Cat ($250 aftermarket) will all most likely need to be addressed in that time frame.

In my case, I do all my own work. I obtained spare battery packs and refurbished them myself, so my costs were very low.

I plan to keep them until the CVT goes out and I can't find a cheap replacement.